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Is There A Connection Between Vastu Problems And Suicide?

Vastu describes basically two types of suicides. According to it, suicides might be committed because of momentary anger or because of constant mental unrest. Further, while momentary anger might not always be due to reasonable causes, there can be four major reasons behind constant mental unrest, which are career, strained relations, financial issues and health issues.

Most of the time people ignore the Vastu rules while constructing a building and end up buying plots which are inappropriate for them. Especially, when the plot or house is available at low prices, people ignore the Vastu rules and buy it.

But Vastu Shastra says that Vastu rules are important as the wrong construction of a house might become a reason for the suicide of the person.

Most Read : Vastu Tips For Office

There are some general rules other than these which are believed to be probable reasons for suicides, as per Vastu. These are the first things to be checked, as per Vastu Shastra. Take a look.

1. A plot should not be located near a graveyard, a railway line, near or over bridges, etc.

2. One should also not buy a plot located near the powerhouses and towers.

3. Those plots which have an excess of trees or heavy trees in the compound are also not considered appropriate.

4. Houses occupied by cats, owls, pigeon or bats are believed to be occupied by negative energies, because all four of these symbolize negative energies.

5. The walls of the house should not have cracks in them.

Suicides Due To Momentary Anger

To avoid suicides due to momentary anger, we should not have heavy machinery in the south direction of the house. There should not be any iron tools or decaying metals kept in the south direction of the house. A cattle shed should also not be there in this direction of the house. The south portion should also not be extended much.

There should not be a kitchen or other areas where heat is generated in the western direction of the house.

Suicides Due To Career Issues

There should not be a waterbody or water tank in the western direction of the house. A storeroom should not be there in the north direction. Otherwise, the career of the individual might get negatively affected and thus might cause constant mental unrest.

Most Read : Vastu Tips For Kitchen

Suicides Due To Problems In Relations

There should not be a temple or place of worship present in the west direction of the house. The library or the study room should also not be situated in the south-east corners. While the north and east directions are associated with the Gods, the south direction is not good at all. Similarly, if there is a makeup room or dressing table placed in the west direction, it might become one of the reasons for strained relations.

Suicides Due To Financial Issues

The north direction is associated with finance. That is why it is often said that the cash cupboard should be placed in the north direction. In order to keep financial tensions at bay, we should follow all the rules related to the north direction. There should also not be a storeroom in the north direction. Anything which the gods would not like should not be placed in the north direction.

Suicides Due To Health Issues

To avoid health issues that can become the cause of a serious tension and a reason for constant worry, we should not construct south-facing houses. A waterbody in the north might also become responsible for the health issues of the family members. Vastu related to the east direction should also be properly followed for good health, says Vastu Shastra.

Read more about: spirituality astrology vastu tips


Looking for an EB-5 investment: Here are 5 considerations

Written By: KURT REUSS

Kurt Ruess
EB5 Deals

1. Real estate projects have advantages

2. Progress is positive

The more progress a project has made to date, typically the less risk there is for immigration purposes and financial success. Construction progress mitigates risks associated with permitting, financing, and means job creation is already under way. Progress also means market fluctuations have less time to impact a project. The closer you get to completion, the sooner operations and stabilization of the asset, allowing permanent financing to be put in place, which is often used to return capital back to EB-5 investors.

3. Exemplar and I-526 approvals

Once USCIS approves at least one I-526 petition, the Immigration Service is highly likely to defer other petition reviews to this approval. A single I-526 approval indicates that the project documents meet the EB-5 program requirements and job creation methodology has been accepted. Often people think that an exemplar approval is a special type of approval issued by the Immigration Service, but it is actually an approval of the project documents before they are filed with an I-526 petition.  Regional centers file for an exemplar in order to provide confidence to the market that their offering will not be rejected in a petitioner’s I-526 submission. So regardless of whether an exemplar gets approved or a single petitioner’s I-526 is approved, both indicate acceptance by USCIS.

4. Exit strategy coincides with your I-829 filing date

Ideally you want to select an EB-5 fund whose investments have an exit strategy, or maturity date, that coincides with your anticipated I-829 filing date. To do so, determine how long you expect it will take to file your I-829. You should consult with your lawyer on this. This is the date that ends the requirement of maintaining your capital “at-risk.”

Next, you’ll want to add in a cushion of time to this date, say one year, for potential delays in processing your petition. It is around this date that you want the EB-5 Fund to have funds available for repaying their investors.

The calculation is different if you were born in a retrogressed country. If you were born in India or Vietnam, you are probably facing a 7-year wait for an EB-5 visa to be available. But it may be possible to go straight to the I-829 stage after entering the U.S., so with a 1-2 year cushion, 8-9 years may be the optimum date to have your capital returned to you.

Loan vs. equity

Loans offer more certainty to estimating maturities as they have maturity dates, while with an equity investment, the Developer does not have an obligation to repay at a specified time. A loan must be repaid at the maturity date or it would be considered in default. But, of course, loans often include loan extension options. It is therefore imperative to identify who makes the decision to extend the maturity date of a loan, and to ask if all investors are subject to the new maturity date. Some EB-5 funds have multiple loans to the borrower with different maturity dates, thereby enabling investors to get repaid at different times as they meet their conditional residency requirements,

5. Be wary of higher than average rates of return

In order to get a rate of return of 3%-4% on your EB-5 investment, you will probably need to invest in a Project where a similar non-EB-5 investment would earn 12%-18%. Compare that to investments that are returning 0.25%, but are replacing money that might otherwise require 5%-8%. In this example we might be taking on 10% more risk for an additional rate of return of 3%.

EB-5 investments are primarily designed to result in a Green Card and are not typically an opportunity to earn a high return on an investment.

Real estate projects that have made significant progress, offer a maturity date that coincides with the timeline of your I-829, and has at least one I-526 approval or an exemplar approval is the starting point for selecting an EB-5 investment that meets your needs.

Marriott Hotel LaGuardia EB5


Praise the Orc! - Chapter 33

Published at 28th of June 2017 09:49:55 AM
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Chapter 33

Chapter 33 – Plains Rescue (4)

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A university restaurant .

Everybody was eating their meals . The TV stopped at one channel .

-Hello . I am Giuseppe, a reporter from [Surprise! What happened in Elder Lord?] .   I am now in the elven city, Arnin .  There is a strange thing occurring here!

Behind her were the high walls of Arnin . The camera illuminated Arnin’s landscape before focusing on Giuseppe again .

–Arnin is famous for its beautiful elf mayor, but there is something more mysterious than her beauty occurring here .  It isn’t here in Arnin, but in the Northern Arnin Plains, the place where triters are hunted to build up reputation .

She ran northwards towards the plains . The angle shook like the cameraman was chasing after her .

–What is going on here? This Giuseppe will go and check it out!

She discovered users walking out of the plains . Their faces were covered in mosaics .

-Hello .  Did you just come from the Arnin Plains?

–So what?

–People are saying that a miracle is happening at Arnin Plains, is that true?

A dwarf male nodded .

-That’s right .  It is a very curious thing .  I was pleasantly surprised .

–What is it?

–You will know if you go there .  If you go now, then you will be able to meet him .

Subtitles appeared and there was a narrator .

-Who can she meet?

This time, Giuseppe asked the elf standing beside the dwarf . His face was also covered in a mosaic .

–Have you met him personally?

–Of course .  We drank and ate together all night .

–That’s right .  At first there was a misunderstanding, but he is a very kind and nice person .  My eyes were opened .

–Wow, is he really that great?

–He is truly…a true ○○ .

The last part referring to the character was beeped out .  The camera cut to another scene . Giuseppe stood at the entrance of the plains as she stared into the screen .

–Now, shall I go and see the rumored person?

Then Giuseppe entered the plains .  The spacious plains were filled with people struggling against the huge triters . Giuseppe lowered her voice and said,

–Now…let’s find out who the rumoured figure is .

Then she ran . She ran across the plains and found a user who had just killed a triter . Giuseppe moved cautiously .

–Here… Hello?

–Eh, what? Ah, Giuseppe! Aren’t you Giuseppe?

–Haha, do you recognize me?

-I’m a fan .  A big fan of ‘What happened in Elder Lord?’ .

–Thank you .

–But what are you doing… Ah! You came because of him .

The user nodded .

–Ah! Do you know who he is?

–Yes .   I know very well .  I thanked him for his help a few times .

–Thanked him for his help?

–Anyone who doesn’t know him here is a spy, a spy .  One spy was frightened off by him .  Hahaha .

Giuseppe looked at the screen with a coy look .

–Then…what type of person is he? I’m really curious .

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She asked the user again .

–Where can I meet him?

–Hrmm… He…because he is so busy…

The user stroked his chin and pointed in one direction .

–Do you see that rock over there?

–That big rock?

–Yes .  Wait over there .  It is the place where his legend began .

Giuseppe trembled and made a big fuss .

–Legend! Truly? What legend? And he might be waiting for us! My heart’s already pounding! I’m looking forward to it .  Would the viewers like to come along as well?

Then she bowed to the user and ran towards the rock .  It was an automatic shot that didn’t require a heavy camera, but the screen waved once again like someone was chasing after her .

They arrived in front of the rock . It was a big rock . But as they approached it, they saw something engraved in the rock .  Subtitles popped up .

[Do you want to know what is written on here…?]

Giuseppe breathed out and placed her hands on the rock and took a step back in amazement .

–There is something engraved here .  This…?

At that moment, the focus blurred . The letters engraved on the rock couldn’t be seen . Subtitles popped up .

[It will continue in a moment!]

Then the screen switched to some ads .  The customers watching idly in the restaurant started to complain as the advertisements appeared .

“Isn’t dragging it on like this annoying?”

“That’s right . That reporter, I don’t like her pretending to be so pretty either . ”

“But what is it about? I’ve never been there before . ”

“I have . I feel like puking every time I see a triter now . It was a few days of hard work . I even died once . ”

“Idiot . You died to those cows?”

“They aren’t cows . You would turn out the same if you made a mistake . ”

The customers in the restaurants started to tell their own stories about Elder Lord .  For some time, the latest capsule and electronic devices from the Myeongsong Group were advertised on the TV . The advertising model was a prominent ranker in Elder Lord .

After the ads were over, Giuseppe appeared on the screen again . The eyes of the customers turned back to the television again .

–Carved here…what is it…?

It is coarse writing, like it was made with a blade!

The screen was close up so the full sentence didn’t appear at first . Giuseppe touched each of the letters by hand .

The screen got further away and the sentence on the rock appeared .

-A warrior doesn’t…attack unarmed people?

Giuseppe was confused .

–Who carved this? Warrior? Somehow, I can feel the spirit of chivalry .

It was at that moment .  Giuseppe suddenly turned her head . Her face turned pale .

The screen convulsed . There was a loud sound, like something had bumped into the camera .  A triter .  Giuseppe wasn’t a strong user so she ran away . The person recording her also ran . The screen kept on shaking .

The moment that the triter was about to reach Giuseppe .

The screen was overturned .  The blue sky of Elder Lord appeared on the screen .  The silence continued .

The customers watching the video were confused .

“…Isn’t this a broadcasting accident?”

“But that isn’t a live broadcast . ”

“Is she dead? Why would they broadcast a death? To show that it’s real?”

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The customers in the restaurant murmured .  At that moment, something appeared on the screen .

It was a big hand .  Thick fingers were seen first . The customers thought it was a dwarf, but the skin was green .  The rough hands filled with calluses filled the screen .

A groan emerged from Giuseppe .  The thick hand grabbed what was assumed to be the video recorder’s hand . Her body was pulled up and the screen shook again .  The sight revealed before them was an orc .

The orc had an unusual appearance .  First, the black bandana on his head . It was old and faded, like it had been used for a long time . The mark of the Blacksmith Company was engraved on the corner .

Below it was the face of an orc . Intense eyes that glared at them! A big nose, thick lips, and protruding tusks .  Fierce tattoos spanned his entire body and there was a huge greatsword on his back .  But the most unusual thing was the orc’s outfit .  There was a red cloth vest over leather armor . In the middle of the vest, a clear cross was drawn with a word embroidered underneath it .

[R . E . S . C . U . E!]

What did ‘rescue’ mean? Giuseppe couldn’t speak and just looked at the orc . The orc looked at her and the person shooting .  Then the orc raised a hand .

… . . !

The orc raised his thumb and turned around .  The back also contained a white cross with words underneath it .

[L . I . F . E . G . U . A . R . D!]

The orc disappeared into the triter hunting grounds .  What did they just see?

Rescue, lifeguard .  It was like the deep valley rivers, the beach at summer, and the snow-covered ski slopes .

Giuseppe muttered blankly .

–J-Just now, an orc saved us .  What is this?

The odd situation where an orc that was treated as a monster saved them! But this wasn’t the end .

A user hunting a triter appeared on the screen . The user flew through the air . The moment that the triter was about to trample on the user, the triter suddenly bounced away, like it was hit by a strong impact .

Then a black figure jumped towards it . The triter that had just been trying to stand up fell back down as blood emerged .  It was a perfect hunt .

The mysterious orc, who saved them previously, was standing in front of the triter with the giant sword .  The sight of him holding the greatsword in the middle of the broken triter was magnificent .

Then the orc raised his thumb towards the user .

… . . !

It was the coolest thumbs up that they had ever seen .  The user bowed and also did a thumbs up . The orc turned around like nothing had happened and sat down on the ground . He watched the people hunting .

Giuseppe hurriedly approached the user who had just been saved .

-Hello User!

–Uh…? Ah, hello?

-I am Giuseppe, a reporter from [Surprise! What happened in Elder Lord?] .   Please explain the strange scene that I just saw .  What is going on?

–Ahh… You came for him…

He pointed to the orc . The orc was just sitting there silently .

–That . . he is a mute orc warrior .

–The thing that is occurring here…

The screen changed to a story .  Instead of Giuseppe, the narrator started to explain the orc’s story .

The situation was this: He came to the city of elves because he wanted to enter Arnin, but was denied access because he was an orc .

An orc actor appeared for a retelling . Although it was sloppy, he somewhat resembled the orc .  As soon as he was about to enter a castle, an elf actor appeared and stood in front of him .

–You can’t access .

‘Is it because I am an orc?’ The orc asked through gestures .

–An orc isn’t allowed to enter here!

-…… . !

The orc made a despairing pose .  The narrator explained .

–He was shocked to hear that he couldn’t enter because he was an orc .  However, he found out that there was another way to enter Arnin…

The orc actor formed a fist and nodded . He headed to the Arnin Plains with a hopeful expression .

–It is nothing other than hunting monsters on the Arnin Plains .  But what he saw was many people suffering while hunting the monsters .

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The orc actor looked sad .

–He couldn’t speak, but he was still a tough orc warrior .  He made a decision…

The orc actor decided something with a firm expression . He started running through the Arnin Plains .

–He helped those in danger .

-The orc saved people .

The pet pigs representing the triters fell and the orc warrior actor raised his thumb at the person who thanked him .

–As he can’t speak, this thumb is the best way for him to express himself .

All of a sudden, the atmosphere was reversed .

–Of course, things weren’t always good .  One day, a user thought of the orc as a simple monster and struck…

The orc actor and human actor confronted each other with knives .

-He was victorious after some difficulty and was on the verge of killing the human .

The orc and the kneeling human were surrounded by four or five actors . All the humans called for the orc to kill his opponent .

Kill! Kill! Kill!

–But after all that, he made a difficult decision .

The orc shook his head .  The other actors were shocked by his decision . ‘Why?’ They protested . The orc looked distressed as he wasn’t able to speak .

–Instead of answering with words, the orc inscribed his will on the rock with his sword .

The orc actor aimed the knife at a rock .  Then the screen changed and illuminated the giant rock that actually existed on the Arnin Plains .

[A warrior doesn’t attack unarmed people . ]

-It was this .

For a moment, it shone . ‘Ohhh’ . The sound of an audience cheering was produced as an audio effect .

–This is all true .

It changed to an interview screen . All of the users had mosaics on their faces, but they all praised the orc .

–He is reliable .  Really .

–I can’t even count the number of times my life was saved because of him .  A truly great person .

–The name? Um, he can’t talk .

–I don’t know how it happened .  But this much is clear .  We were mistaken about orcs .

–He is…

-A true…

The interviewers all finished simultaneously .

–A warrior .

The screen was switched .  Giuseppe followed the orc .

–Orc! Orc!

-…… .

The orc seemed annoyed as Giuseppe followed him .  In the end, the [Surprise! What happened in Elder Lord?] production team couldn’t get an interview with him .  Giuseppe was forced to finish the program in front of the rock carved by the orc .

–Unfortunately, I was unable to interview him .  It is a shame, but the sentence that he left behind tells us who he is on its own .

The sentence shone again on the screen .

‘A warrior doesn’t attack unarmed people . ’

Many things were implied with the sentence .

–Although he is a NPC, it seems that we have a lot to learn from him .  Especially at this time, when many ethical problems are being raised about Elder Lord .  I hope you have enjoyed this wonderful, delightful and warm Elder Lord life .  This was Giuseppe, a reporter from [Surprise! What happened in Elder Lord?] .

She waved her hand . At the same time, the camera rose into the sky and captured both her and the rock . It continued to climb up until the rock looked like a toy, capturing the image of the plains and the blue sky of Elder Lord .

The narrator finished .

–The nameless orc .  I hope his life as a great warrior will last for a long time .

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The broadcast closed with this voice and some music .  The program ended .

The restaurant’s customers rose from their seats .

“That was amazing . Was that really an orc?”

“Really . Aren’t there many witnesses on the Internet? It is more interesting to see it directly . ”

“The orc is great . ”

“Are you doing anything now?”

“Where did he go? People will come and watch . ”

“Hey, do you want to try becoming an orc?”

“Yes . ”

The university students left the restaurant .  When they talked about the program they just saw, all of them usually asked one question .

“That orc, what is he doing now?”

Elwina, the elf guard at Arnin’s gate, looked at the orc in front of her in surprise .

This was the first time that someone had raised their reputation so quickly . It usually took a month of focused hunting .

In addition, his pass wasn’t just a permit .  It was an honourary citizenship granted by the Arnin Plains administrator . It was an honourable title only given to those who did great achievements in Arnin . He would be treated as a citizen of Arnin .

Elwina’s heart started pounding . The orc had really solved the task he was given . He was much more wonderful than she had thought .

“I-Incredible . I’m not surprised so don’t be mistaken . ”

Elwina tried to say calmly .  The orc didn’t answer .

“What, are you ignoring people now?”

“Why do you keep…ah . ”

The orc was pointing at his mouth .

Elwina blushed .  “Ah, that’s right . I had forgotten . When I think back, I think I used too much strength . I didn’t know it would still last . Well, I’m sorry . ”

She dismissed the magic .  Silence was disabled .

“So now…”

“Hey, elf with no manners . ”

“Because of you…!”

She looked at Crockta with a hurt expression .  Crockta looked at the beautiful elf and changed his next words .

“…So pretty . ”

“Oh my god . ”

“Well then, I’ll see you later . No offense, pretty elf guard . ”

The Crockta confidently headed through the gates .  Elwina stared blankly at his back . She felt a strange feeling .

Then someone spoke to her .  “Young Lady . ”

“…Don’t call me that . I am now a guard . ”

“The mayor is calling . ”

Elwina was confused .

“She said to stop being a guard . ”

“Please tell her that I will do as I want . ”

“If Young Lady doesn’t return home right now, then she will sell all of your collection…”

“I understand . I will go back . ”

Elwina sighed .

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Gen. Z workers want immediate access to data that shows them how they’re performing. That’s one reason many companies — like AccentureMicrosoft, and Adobe — are doing away with traditional performance reviews. Annual cycles are just way too slow for today’s workers, among other problems.

Younger workers have grown up with expectations of instant gratification. They’re used to having everything they’ve ever needed at their fingertips thanks to smartphones, and this craving for instant gratification carries over into their work lives. Instead of waiting until the end of the game to learn the score, Gen. Z employees want immediate access to their real-time performance data. After all, that’s the only way they can make adjustments and improve their performance before the game is over.

But while more timely data can be useful to Gen. Z-ers, overreacting to every uptick or drop in a metric leads to a lot of wasted effort and gets in the way of business success. The trick is to give young employees their data points, but also teach them how to avoid overreacting.

Real-Time Data Without the Distraction

Let’s say Riley is the marketing director for a recruiting firm. One of her goals is to increase traffic on the company website, and her future pay raises and possible promotions depend on it. Web traffic is, thankfully, easily measured, and Riley gets an email from Google Analytics each month that shows the number of users and how much that number has changed from the month before.

Two data points are not a trend, and all the Google email does is compare one data point to the last. If the number of users is down 2.2 percent from the previous month, it’s really hard to evaluate that percentage change without better context. Searching for the older Google emails, Riley sees that traffic was up 16.7 percent the previous month. Riley might be tempted (or pressured by the CEO) to ask why growth has turned into decline. Riley would then spend a few hours investigating, looking for a root cause for the decline in the number of users.

It’s a fact that a negative 2.2 percent is worse than a positive 16.7 percent, but again, it’s just two data points. How much does that number normally fluctuate each month over time? A better question to ask would be, “Has the number of users changed in a way that is statistically significant?” If the recent decline in users is not statistically significant, looking for a root cause is a distraction, if not a waste of time.

Let’s say you step on the scale at the same time each morning. Even if your weight is pretty stable over time, you’re not going to weigh the exact same amount each day. Many of us learn to shrug off small fluctuations in our weight, looking instead for more meaningful trends. We can do the same with the way we keep score at work.

The first thing Riley could do differently is log into Google Analytics to see the number of users by week (or even by day). Google Analytics will, by default, visualize the numbers as a run chart, a method that makes it far easier for Riley to see trends in how the number of website visitors has changed over time. Here’s an example:

When we step back from looking so closely at each data point, trends (or the lack thereof) across a longer time frame might appear. Riley sees, in the chart, that this metric goes up some weeks and goes down others — a helpful insight into the metric’s performance.

A slightly more sophisticated approach would be to use a spreadsheet to create a process behavior chart from the data, a method I teach in my book, Measures of Success. In addition to the data, Riley would calculate the average weekly number of visitors, and a line would be added to the chart, shown below in green. Riley would also calculate the lower and upper limits, adding two more lines to the chart (shown below in red), so it looks like this:

Again, this chart makes it look like the number is fluctuating around an average of about 3,500. Any single data point outside of the limits (outside of the red lines) would be a signal that web traffic has changed significantly. Any single data point between the red lines is just noise in the system. Freed of the need to explain every up and down, Riley is now able to spend time working on things that might attract more users to the website, such as creating new content.

Another signal that a metric has shifted significantly would be finding eight consecutive data points above the average. In fact, the last eight data points almost meet that criteria. As additional weeks go by, Riley (and the CEO) will see additional data points. The number might continue fluctuating around the average — or with the right efforts in place to increase (and not just explain) web traffic, they might see a signal that shows an increase.

A methodology like this shows there’s no need to wait months (or until the end of the year) to tally up the numbers and evaluate performance. I stand with Gen. Z when I say, “Give me more numbers, more quickly — but also teach me how to react less and lead me more effectively, so we can improve more.”

Mark Graban is an internationally recognized consultant, author, and professional speaker. His latest book is Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More.

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in Performance Management]


Nope, our Temporary Moon Isn’t Space Junk, it’s an Asteroid

Further Reading: UANews

Evidence Continues To Mount For Ninth Planet

Ever since its existence was first proposed, the evidence for Planet 9 continues to mount. But of course, said evidence has been entirely indirect, consisting mostly of studies that show how the orbits of Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) are consistent with a large object crossing their path. However, evidence is also emerging that comes from the center of the Solar System itself.

This latest line of evidence comes from Caltech, where researchers Elizabeth Bailey, Konstantin Batygin, and Michael E. Brown (the latter of whom were the ones who first proposed Planet 9’s existence) have published a new study linking solar obliquity to the existence of Planet 9. Essentially, they claim that the axial tilt of the Sun (6°) could be due to the gravitational influence a large planet with an extreme orbit.

To recap, the issue of Planet was first raised in 2014 by astronomers Scott Sheppard and Chadwick Trujillo. Noting the similarities in the orbits of distant Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), they postulated that a massive object was likely influencing them. This was followed in 2016 by Konstantin Batygin and Michael E. Brown of Caltech suggesting that an undiscovered planet was the culprit.

Calling this body Planet 9, they speculated that it had a mass 10 times greater than that of Earth, and took 20,000 years to complete a single orbit of our Sun. They also speculated that its orbit was tilted relative to the other planets of our Solar System, and extremely eccentric. And little by little, examinations of other Solar bodies have shown that Planet 9 is likely out there.

For the sake of their study – “Solar Obliquity Induced by Planet Nine“, which was recently published in the Astrophysical Journal – the research team (led by Bailey) looked to the obliquity of the Sun. As they state in their paper, the six-degree axial tilt of the Sun can only be explained in one of two ways – either as a result of an asymmetry that was present during the formation of Solar System, or because of an external source of gravity.

To test this hypothesis, Bailey, Batygin and Brown used an analytic model to test how interactions between Planet 9 and the rest of the Solar System would effect their orbits over the course of the last 4.5 billion years. As Elizabeth Bailey, a graduate student at Caltech’s Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences and the lead author on the paper, told Universe Today via email:

“We simulated the solar system’s motion. Planet 9 forces the solar system to slowly wobble. If Planet 9 is out there, we are in the process of wobbling right now, as we speak! But it happens very slowly, a few degrees tilt per billion years. Meanwhile the sun is not wobbling much,  so it looks like the sun is tilted. A range of Planet 9 parameters cause exactly the configuration of the sun that we see today.

In the end, they concluded that the Sun’s obliquity could only be explained by the influence of giant planet with an extreme orbit, one that is consistent with the characteristics attributed to Planet 9. In other words, the existence of Planet 9 offers an explanation for the Sun’s peculiar behavior, something which has remained a mystery until now.

“Planet Nine was first hypothesized because the orbits of objects in the outer reaches of the solar system are confined in physical space,” said Bailey. “Those orbits would be all over the place unless something is currently stopping them. The only explanation so far is Planet Nine. For over 150 years, people have wondered why the sun is tilted. Personally I’d say that Planet 9 offers the first satisfying explanation. If it exists, it tilted the sun.”

In addition, the subject of Planet 9 was also raised at the joint 48th meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences and 11th European Planetary Science Congress, which took place from Oct 16th to 21st in Pasadena, California. During the course of the meeting, researchers from Arizona University shared the results of their own study, which was published back in August.

The Arizona research team was led by Renu Malhotra, a Regents’ Professor of Planetary Sciences in the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Lab. For the sake of their study, titled “Corralling a Distant Planet with Extreme Resonant Kuiper Belt Objects“, they examined the orbital patterns of four extreme Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), which have the longest orbital periods of any known objects.

Artist's impression of the the possible Planet 9 at the edge of the Solar System. Credit: Robin Dienel/Carnegie Science

According to their calculations, the presence of a massive planet – one that would complete an orbit around the Sun every 17,117 years, and at an average distance (semimajor axis) of 665 AU – would explain the orbital pattern of these four objects. These results were consistent with the estimates concerning the orbital period of Planet 9, its orbital path, and it mass.

“We analyzed the data of these most distant Kuiper Belt objects,” Malhotra said, “and noticed something peculiar, suggesting they were in some kind of resonances with an unseen planet… Our paper provides more specific estimates for the mass and orbit that this planet would have, and, more importantly, constraints on its current position within its orbit.”

Looks like Planet 9’s days of hiding in the outer Solar System may be numbered!

Further Reading: arXiv, Caltech, Europlanet

Kuiper Belt Objects Point The Way To Planet 9

Since that time, many researchers have responded with their own studies about the possible existence of this mysterious “Planet 9”. One of the latest comes from the University of Arizona, where a research team from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory have indicated that the extreme eccentricity of distant Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) might indicate that they crossed paths with a massive planet in the past.

For some time now, it has been understood that there are a few known KBOs who’s dynamics are different than those of other belt objects. Whereas most are significantly controlled by the gravity of the gas giants planets in their current orbits (particularly Neptune), certain members of the scattered disk population of the Kuiper Belt have unusually closely-spaced orbits.

When Batygin and Brown first announced their findings back in January, they indicated that these objects instead appeared to be highly clustered with respect to their perihelion positions and orbital planes. What’s more, their calculation showed that the odds of this being a chance occurrence were extremely low (they calculated a probability of 0.007%).

In a paper titled “Coralling a distant planet with extreme resonant Kuiper belt objects“, the University of Arizona research team – which included Professor Renu Malhotra, Dr. Kathryn Volk, and Xianyu Wang – looked at things from another angle. If in fact Planet 9 were crossing paths with certain high-eccentricity KBOs, they reasoned, it was a good bet that its orbit was in resonance with these objects.

To break it down, small bodies are ejected  from the Solar System all the time due to encounters with larger objects that perturb their orbits. In order to avoid being ejected, smaller bodies need to be protected by orbital resonances. While the smaller and larger objects may pass within each others’ orbital path, they are never close enough that they would able to exert a significant influence on each other.

This is how Pluto has remained a part of the Solar System, despite having an eccentric orbit that periodically cross Neptune’s path. Though Neptune and Pluto cross each others orbit, they are never close enough to each other that Neptune’s influence would force Pluto out of our Solar System. Using this same reasoning, they hypothesized that the KBOs examined by Batygin and Brown might be in an orbital resonance with the Planet 9.

“The extreme Kuiper belt objects we investigate in our paper are distinct from the others because they all have very distant, very elliptical orbits, but their closest approach to the Sun isn’t really close enough for them to meaningfully interact with Neptune. So we have these six observed objects whose orbits are currently fairly unaffected by the known planets in our Solar System. But if there’s another, as yet unobserved planet located a few hundred AU from the Sun, these six objects would be affected by that planet.”

“For a resonance to be dynamically meaningful in the outer Solar System, you need one of the objects to have enough mass to have a reasonably strong gravitational effect on the other,” said the research team. “The extreme Kuiper belt objects aren’t really massive enough to be in resonances with each other, but the fact that their orbital periods fall along simple ratios might mean that they each are in resonance with a massive, unseen object.”

But what is perhaps most exciting is that their findings could help to narrow the range of Planet 9’s possible location. Since each orbital resonance provides a geometric relationship between the bodies involved, the resonant configurations of these KBOs can help point astronomers to the right spot in our Solar System to find it.

“There are a lot of uncertainties here. The orbits of these extreme Kuiper belt objects are not very well known because they move very slowly on the sky and we’ve only observed very small portions of their orbital motion. So their orbital periods might differ from the current estimates, which could make some of them not resonant with the hypothetical planet. It could also just be chance that the orbital periods of the objects are related; we haven’t observed very many of these types of objects, so we have a limited set of data to work with.”

Based on a careful study of Saturn's orbit and using mathematical models, French scientists were able to whittle down the search region for Planet Nine to "possible" and "probable" zones. Source: CNRS, Cote d'Azur and Paris observatories. Credit:
Estimates of Planet Nine’s “possible” and “probable” zones. by French scientists based on a careful study of Saturn’s orbit and using mathematical models. Source: CNRS, Cote d’Azur and Paris observatories. Credit: Bob King

Further Reading:


The K-center algorithm

I have always liked the K-center algorithm. K-center tends to cover the data set uniformly rather than concentrating on the high density areas (like K-means). Also, K-center does well if small outlier clusters belong to different classes, whereas K-means tends to ignore small clusters. Check out K-Center and Dendrogram Clustering: Applications to Image Segmentation for some nice pictures.


ch 16 APUSH

Frederick Jackson TurnerAmerican historian who said that humanity would continue to progress as long as there was new land to move into. The frontier provided a place for homeless and solved social problems.
Sitting Bulla chief of the Sioux
Little Big HornWHO: Indians and US
WHAT:Custer and his men were wiped out by a coalition of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse
WHERE: S. Montana
WHY: Last major Indian victory
Chief JosephLead the Nez Perce during the hostilities between the tribe and the U.S. Army in 1877. His speech “I Will Fight No More Forever” mourned the young Indian men killed in the fighting.
assimilationistsThese people had been mostly influenced by Jackson’s book and had deep sympathy for the Natives due to the injustices done to them, and would segregate Native American children from their people and teach them white culture and farming and industrial skills. They also emphasized formal education and training and conversion to Christianity for the Natives.
Ghost Dance MovementThe last effort of Native Americans to resist US domination and drive whites from their ancestral lands, came through as a religious movement.
Wounded Kneevillage in South Dakota. In 1890 it was the site of a massacre of Native North Americans in which between 150 and 370 Sioux people were killed, most of them unarmed.
Indian Reorganization Act1934 – Restored tribal ownership of lands, recognized tribal constitutions and government, and provided loans for economic development.
George Washington CarverUnited States botanist and agricultural chemist who developed many uses for peanuts and soy beans and sweet potatoes (1864-1943)
Tuskegee instituteA normal and industrial school led by Booker T. Washington in Tuskegee, Alabama. It focused on training young black students in agriculture and the trades to help them achieve economic independence. Washington justified segregated, vocational training as a necessary first step on the road to racial equality, although critics accused him of being too “accomodationist”.
Farmers’ Southern AllianceBy 1890, it had more than one million members. It rallied behind political reforms to solve farmers’ economic troubles.
Civil Rights Cases of 1883Court ruled that Congress could not legislate against the racial discrimination practiced by private citizens.
Plessy v. Fergusona 1896 Supreme Court decision which legalized state ordered segregation so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were equal
Jim Crow lawsThe “separate but equal” segregation laws state and local laws enacted in the Southern and border states of the United States and enforced between 1876 and 1965
Ida B. WellsAfrican American journalist. published statistics about lynching, urged African Americans to protest by refusing to ride streetcards or shop in white owned stores
Booker T. WashingtonProminent black American, born into slavery, who believed that racism would end once blacks acquired useful labor skills and proved their economic value to society, was head of the Tuskegee Institute in 1881. His book “Up from Slavery.”
National Grange MovementOrganized in 1868 by Oliver H. Kelley as social and educational organization for farmers and their families.
Granger LawsGrangers state legislatures in 1874 passed law fixing maximum rates for freight shipments. The railroads responded by appealing to the Supreme Court to declare these laws unconstitutional
Munn v. Illinois(1877) United States Supreme Court Case that ended up allowing states to regulate business within their borders, including railroads
Wabash v. Illinois1886 – Stated that individual states could control trade in their states, but could not regulate railroads coming through them. Congress had exclusive jurisdiction over interstate commerce.
Interstate Commerce ActApproved on February 4, 1887 the Interstate Commerce Act created an Interstate Commerce Commission to oversee the conduct of the railroad industry. With this act the railroads became the first industry subject to Federal regulation.
National AllianceThe deepening crisis in farm prices in the 1880s resulted in the blending of a host of organizations into the National Alliance Movement. The movement had distinct branches in the South and Midwest.
Ocala PlatformA platform that would have significant impact in later years: They supported 1) direct election of US senators, 2) lower tariff rates, 3) a graduated income tax, and 4) a new banking system regulated by the federal govt.


Yesterday, we started talking about a number of questions from Curious Cat that focused on the role of angels in magical work, and what happens when they don’t show up or don’t do what we ask, command, or commission them to do for us.  This is a really complex topic, at least so complex that I can’t really answer it in the 3000 character limit that Curious Cat sets for question replies, but I’m trying to flesh it out as best as I can here on my blog.  Again, I’m approaching this from a Hermetic monist-yet-polytheist standpoint that takes in the existence of both angels and gods under God in the same creation that we’re in.  What we ended up with so far is this idea that we can’t really command angels to do anything; all we can do is pray that they do something for us, whether it’s appearing in a crystal for a conjuration or fulfilling some task or teaching us some mystery.  And when we make such prayers, we’re directing those prayers to God, because angels exist solely to fulfill the will of God; that’s their nature.  Angels don’t have free will; their will is the will of God, or they just constantly and forever want the exact same thing God wants in the exact same way, and will act in their capacities to fulfill the will of God.  This means that it’s our prayers to God that matter more than the presence or help of the angels, and there are lots of reasons why prayers might not be answered: sometimes it’s because we’re not asking for what’s possible according to the will of God, and sometimes it’s best we don’t get what we want because it’s not for us or because we’re not ready for it yet.

What it all comes down to is this: we, as human beings, are blessed with quite a lot of power, but it’s not infinite power.  We’re actually quite small and insignificant in the grander scope of the cosmos, but we still have some significance.  That significance plays through our True Will, which is a fancy modern way to describe “our path in life”, the purpose and plan of God that God has established for us as individuals as written in his Book of Life.  Everything we do in life, in order to be successful, has to be either in explicit accordance with our True Will or at least tolerated and permissible within the bounds of what our True Will necessitates; to give a mundane example, it’s necessary that I leave my house at 7:20 am to go get to the train station on time, but that doesn’t mean I have to wake up at 6 am in order to be sufficiently ready, because I have the freedom to wake up earlier or later so long as I’m out the door by 7:20 am.  Likewise, we have to live according to our True Will, whether or not we’re consciously aware of it, but we also have leeway to do things explicitly outside it because it doesn’t fundamentally matter one way or another, so long as we’re not doing things that actively go against our True Will.

When we act in accordance with our True Will, then we’re acting in accordance with the will of God, and we effectively become his angels for as long as our will is his will, and so long as that synchronization is maintained, there is nothing that can stop us; we might be delayed, slowed down, or face other difficulties in accomplishing it according to the usual vicissitudes of life and the struggles we face against the ignorant actions of ourselves or other human beings or the inimical actions of malevolent spirits, but God will not bar us or deny us from it, because it is his will that we should do the thing we’re doing.  When we act within the permissibility of our True Will, then what we’re doing may not be explicitly necessitated or mandated by God, but we have the license to act on it anyway because it doesn’t fundamentally matter one way or another so long as we get the right things done in the right way.  But when we act outside the permissibility of our True Will, then we go against the will of God, and there is nothing we can do that will change that, and we’re off-track from the proper path for ourselves in life.

The topic of True Will is one that I’ve talked about time and again on my blog in the past, and I think I’ve made some really important points on this before:

What do we, as conjurers and magicians and magi, do?  We take our divine birthright as children of the Most High and join with him in the ever-continuing act of creation of the cosmos.  We ask for the blessing of God to do what is Right and to enact our True Wills, thereby rejoining God in his infinite Grace.  We step into the role as agents of the Divine, of the Most Divine, to work with the spirits who are our relatives, who are our brothers and sisters from the same Source, and who endeavor to aid us as they aid the Divine themselves.  We, essentially, become a consciously direct extension of God and join with God.  I’m going to stop this little poetic waxing short of saying “we become God”, because we already are essentially part of the Prime Mover down in this little ass-end of the cosmos, but we come closest to it consciously when we do our Work.

There are points when working with the spirits simply does not work; as Fr. Rufus Opus has said, the general idea is “move  this or move me”, where either a thing desired is changed or made in the world or where we ourselves are changed if nothing else can be changed.  God, clearly, can change everything, since that’s pretty much his thing; nothing disobeys God, since everything is a part of God and works as part of the One, the cohesive Whole.  But, that said, by moving ourselves, we partake in that same action, and bring ourselves closer to becoming what we need to Be and do what we need to Do; in these cases, we bring ourselves closer to attaining and carrying out our True Wills.  This is also the same in all other instances when working with the spirits gets us results in the external world. (November 2, 2013)

This ties in tightly to notions of True Will and divine providence, too, and the ideas are similar.  When we do what God wants us to do, carrying out and serving our divine purpose, that’s our True Will, the will we are meant to fulfill which we ourselves can know once we can see ourselves clearly enough.  To do that, however, we have to carry out the Great Work, which helps us prepare ourselves across the four parts of the world and begin to hear and use Logos.  This allows our sensible, material bodies to better heed and serve our souls, which can then develop properly into a fully-knowledgeable and divine soul with Nous.  With Nous being known to ourselves, we then can carry out what it is we’re supposed to do; at that point, any distinction between what we want and what God wants is meaningless, because our wills have become God’s will and vice versa. (December 8, 2013)

I’ve brought up the idea before that, if we envision the whole grand scheme of things, the Cosmos, as a giant machine, then everyone is a gear in that machine. So long as we keep on doing what we need to do, every part works in harmony with every other part, and the machine works well. If even one part, however, gets out of sync or decides to revolt, then much of the rest of the system we find ourselves in can malfunction or break down, and other parts have to accommodate the malfunction until things get into proper working order again. (This is why life isn’t perfect, I suppose.) Kalagni of Blue Flame Magick once described this to me (in a discussion on True Will) as how a solar system works: the planets don’t need to think or plan or consciously strive towards orbiting the Sun, they just do it naturally as an expression of their selves and their purpose. But imagine, dear reader, if a rogue planet suddenly whipped itself into our solar system, or worse, imagine if one of our own planets suddenly got a wild hare up its axis of rotation and jumped out of its orbit. What happens? The other planets get knocked out of their own orbits, potentially colliding with other planets or celestial bodies, and the whole system gets out of whack until it finds a new equilibrium to settle down in. There’s no guarantee that this equilibrium will be equivalent to the previous one, or that the solar system as a whole will survive such an accident, but hey, shit happens. The Cosmos will do what it needs to do in order to work out its own problems, and its our job to make sure that we do our own Work accordingly to handle our Will, regardless of what the vicissitudes of fate throw at us. (February 12, 2017)

When you seek to work against your True Will, you cause problems, and the only solution is to get back in line with your True Will; there is no other option or alternative, and as I said earlier, no angel, demon, ghost, or god will make what you seek permissible without them going against their own True Wills.  Yes, other entities have their own True Wills.  It stands to reason that if we have a particular purpose in the creation of the Creator, then so does everyone and everything else, too, with the same kinds of boundaries and limits, just on different scales and with different scopes.  I brought this up in my answer to that last question from Curious Cat, since the question referenced other deities as examples of ones one might go to when God himself says “no”, one of which was the orisha Yemaya:

Since you bring up Yemaya, my mother in Ocha who’s extraordinarily dear to my heart (though my father and crown is Ogun), I can phrase this in a more Ocha-centric way. In Ocha theology, there are all these orisha, the divinities of the world, but there’s a hierarchy among them, with Obatala as king of the orisha. But Obatala is not the almighty all-ruler of the cosmos; that role goes to Olodumare (or Olorun or Olofi, they’re all basically the same), the divine creator of the whole cosmos. All things exist to carry out the will of Olodumare, including the orisha; as oloshas, we don’t interact with Olodumare because ey’s so far distant and removed from our day-to-day life, but instead, we interact with eir’s emissaries, stewards, and regents: the orisha. They cannot go against the will of Olodumare, who sets the laws for everything and everyone, but within their own domains, they have the power to work and act. So long as Olodumare grants them license to do so, they can do what they want.

Heck, even in orisha religion, there’s a notion that “no orisha can bless you if your own Ori does not accept it”.  Ori, in this case, is a special kind of head spirit that we all have, initiated or not, and is a kind of notion of “higher self” as well as our own “spirit of destiny”.  In many ways, if I were to translate it in to Western Hermtic terms, it’s essentially the spirit of our True Will.  If we ask for something but our Ori says “nope”, then it’s not part of your destiny to receive it, and no orisha will be able to give it to you, even if they want to give it to you or if you want to get it from them.  But if your Ori says “yup”, then it doesn’t matter whether we want the thing or not, because it’s part of our destiny to have it; we might delay on it or we might speed up towards it, but we can’t avoid it, and no orisha will be able to stop it, no matter how hard they try.  There might be ways to ameliorate or “fix” one’s destiny, but it’s limited, and even then, defaults back to the will of Olodumare (i.e. the will of God).

Even in Hellenic traditional religion, there’s a notion that Zeus is not just the king of Olympos, but the king of truly the entire cosmos whose power and rule is absolute, and whose will must be obeyed by all.  I dimly recall a scene from the Iliad (I forget where) where Zeus proclaims his own power, saying that if all the other gods and goddesses and spirits held on to the end of an unbreakable rope and if Zeus alone had it wrapped around his little finger, he could still yank the rope with such force as to fling all the other deities to the far ends of the world with just a nudge.  The will of Zeus is absolute, and no things can go against that supreme will; though Zeus is not necessarily a creator deity, he is still a cosmocrator all the same; he just happens to go along with his own designs and plans and will when he “obeys” the powers of other deities such as Anankē (Necessity) or the Moirai (Fates), because he does not permit himself to break the rules that he himself has set in conjunction with the other deities that establish the purpose and path of all things.

Consider it this way: in order to get around mental blocks about fighting against God when God says “no”, replace the word “God” (or “Olodumare” or “Zeus” or any other cosmocrator/creator deity) with the phrase “the fundamental nature of the cosmos”.  Thus, when the fundamental nature of the cosmos says “yes”, there’s nothing that can stop it from happening, and when the fundamental nature of the cosmos says “no”, there’s nothing that can make it happen.  Likewise, to get around the mental blocks when angels or any particular deity or divinity say “no”, replace the word “angels” or “other gods” with the phrase “the fundamental forces of the cosmos”.  When the fundamental forces of the cosmos say “yes”, that’s because the fundamental nature of the cosmos necessitates that those forces act in a certain way in order for the cosmos to maintain its nature; when the fundamental forces of the cosmos say “no”, that’s because the fundamental nature of the cosmos cannot allow those forces to function in that way in accordance with the rules that the fundamental nature of the cosmos set up and plays by.  However, those same fundamental forces of the cosmos may function in ways that produce interesting and perhaps unexpected side effects or which produce emergent properties that arise from particular combinations or edge-cases of forces interacting; these don’t go against the fundamental nature of the cosmos, but are still part of the cosmos because of how those forces work.  A force will do whatever it will do, and given the proper setting and context, it can and will do a lot, especially if there’s nothing stopping it, but it cannot do what it was not designed to do nor can it do anything when it has no power in a particular situation or context.

This is essentially where fate and destiny come into play, because “fate” is essentially “the course that the fundamental nature of the cosmos will take”, and it’s up to us to live our lives in accordance with fate, just as one can’t really go upstream down a torrentially-flowing river.  The thing is that we can go with it or fight against it; whether we’re successful or not is, ultimately, up whether what we’re doing is in accordance with that destiny and whether it plays a role in accomplishing it.  It sounds like, in the debate between fate vs. free will, all the above argues against free will and for the undeniable power of fate.  And yes!  That’s true.  But it’s also true that, from our point of view, we have freedom of choice and freedom of will, to be sure.  We don’t have to go along with the the fundamental nature of the cosmos, but it probably won’t end well, and even within the boundaries of the fundamental nature of the cosmos, we can still do a lot that the fundamental nature of the cosmos hasn’t explicitly mandated, often including how we do what we need to do.  After a certain point in the cosmos, the distinction between fate and free will becomes moot; you just do what you’re supposed to do, not because you don’t have a choice, but because you capital-W Want to.

For as important and wonderful and powerful as we are as human beings, we are still so small and weak.  The cosmos is filled with things far bigger, older, smarter, cleverer, and stronger than us.  Sometimes we can fight against them, and on occasion, we might even win.  In general, though, issues with authority will only cause you problems, and issues with the underlying authority of all of creation itself won’t get you very far at all.  When we appeal to God for help, we might get it, or we might not; it’s not up to us to demand it, because quite frankly, the cosmos owes you nothing at all.  You were made to fulfill some purpose or role; strive for that, because all else is meaningless in the end!  If you want something and you’re both meant to have it and capable of having it, then it will be yours; if you want something and you’re meant to have it but you’re not capable of having it, then start working on being capable of having it so that it can be yours; if you  want something and you’re not meant to have it, then accept it and move on to the things that you’re meant to have.  This is not an easy lesson to learn, because this is fundamentally the lesson of humility before God: “be it done unto me according to your word”.  We might be kings of our spheres and worlds, but there are still higher powers that we, too, must obey in order for our kingdoms to survive.  We are both ruler of that which is below and within and servant to that which is above and without.

This is essentially the whole point of our Great Work, our Magnum Opus, our True Will: we must learn what is appropriate and best for us, then work towards accomplishing it.  It’s not a one-and-done event that you can spend a month studying for then doing a simple ritual one night and going to bed and partying for the rest of your life; it’s literally the constant work of lifetimes, the most important and the most difficult thing we can ever do and ever be doing.  By that very same token, it’s also the most worthy, worthwhile, valuable, and precious thing we can ever hope to accomplish, and there is nothing we can do that is truly worthy of such a blessing and reward except to simply do it.  That we have the means and capability of fulfilling our fate is, in a sense, true grace from God.  We just need to keep our eyes on the target, keep facing towards God, and keep learning about our True Will so that we can fulfill it, day by day, step by step, stone by stone, breath by breath, bite by bite.  One day, we’ll get there.  There is nothing else in all of creation that is as worthy, or as difficult, than for us to fulfill what we were meant to do.

Whether we get what we want doesn’t ultimately matter, regardless whether or not we get it.  It’s whether we get what we Want that matters.

Getting Burnt by the Stars, part 1: Get In or Get Out

The occult arts are no light thing to just pick up, fiddle with, and set aside.  Sure, some things like energy manipulation, astral travel, and other basic skills that are available to everyone, or mostly everyone given a little bit of training.  Divination is a useful skill and can be picked up from a book and a few weeks’ worth of practice, or more depending on the system to be studied.  Talking with spirits, ghosts, angels, and the like can be fairly easily accomplished given a willingness and openness to perceive and talk with them.  Meditation is something everyone should be doing no matter what their professions or hobbies might be, it’s just that useful and applicable.

No, dear reader, the real heart of magic is way up above us, quite literally in the stars themselves.  The seven planets of the old Babylonians, Egyptians, and Greeks, starting from our worldly plane of the four elements and rising up through the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, past the final barriers out into the sphere of the fixed stars, and thence outward into the unlimited and unending Source of all the light we see as starlight down here.  That’s the magic I’m talking about, and dealing with the different and higher levels of reality, whether internal consciousness or external planes, is difficult, dangerous, and so very, very worth it.

I mean, all our (human, mundane) lives, we’re used to living down here in this world of matter, laws, money, borders, and machines.  We spend most of our time awake and aware of what’s going on within and outside our physical bodies, and we don’t often have the chance to see beyond the material into the higher levels of things.  For one, it’s an institutionalized de facto law that anything besides what’s materially apparent doesn’t exist, no matter how influential it may be; most modern science and the philosophies of New Atheism and scientism reflect this, that only what’s independently, objectively, numerically, repeatedly verifiable can exist and nothing else.  For two, even the old cosmogonies and creation myths that describe a spiritual human entity and its creation also describe how it came to live and be imprisoned down here: the Abrahamic fall from grace, the dharmic creation of karma, the gnostic archons and demiurge, and so on.

All of these myths and stories have the same fact at their cores: humanity is amphibian, living in worlds material and spiritual, but can be so much more if we tried.  Becoming more than just material is the essence of the Great Work, and can be stated in any number of ways.  Any religious or spiritual path with godhood, apotheosis, or reunion with the Source as its goal fulfills the requirements of the Great Work, so by all means, dear reader, pick and choose which path is most suited for you.  Don’t expect any of the paths to be easy, fast, or simple, though, because the word for “work” in Latin, opus, doesn’t have the other meaning of “burden” for no reason.

Living a magical life and carrying out one’s Great Work is hard work.  It takes practice, it takes time, it takes tolls, and it takes sacrifice.  One cannot simply turn lead, moldy fruit, or buckets of urine (handle and all) into the purest gold without a complete upheaval, extreme heat, profound darkness, and constant cleansing.  It’s like that for one’s life, as well.  It may be easy to go “this looks cool” or “let’s try it, it sounds like fun” from an outside perspective, trying out alchemical phases on inanimate objects, but when you try it on yourself, you probably won’t be thinking that for long.

Magic is hard.  The constant practice, vigilance, dedication, and obligation one has to burden oneself with only gets heavier with time and, though one may get used to it, it doesn’t get any easier.  Worldly pleasures, social interaction, and even common livelihoods may often have to take a back seat, even one’s marriages or families, because magic calls one to things higher than any social, institutional, or worldly order.  Sure, “as above, so below” and all, but when you’re stuck seeing things only from below, you miss the bird’s eye view from above and are going to be ignorant to a lot of higher things that make the entire machine of the cosmos function.  It’s going to suck only because you’re not used to being otherworldly.

Magic burns.  Flying up amongst the stars, immersing oneself in their heavenly lights, and incorporating their celestial rays into one’s sphere is blissful, but you’re also dealing with light of the most rarefied, pure kind.  Light that strong, that bright, that close up will burn, and there’s no way around that.  Some people don’t like having their darkest secrets illuminated to themselves and the world, and some people cling too much to old infested huts to let them burn down so as to build newer and better palaces.  You’re going to have to burn things down so as to burn back up as well; only by setting oneself on fire can one be holy and powerful enough to ascend to the highest reaches of the heavens themselves.  It’s going to suck only because you’re used to not being on fire.

Nobody who wasn’t lying ever said that magic was easy, and those who actually live the magic don’t lie about it.  Not everyone was meant for magic, and even if you were meant for it, you’re going to have to change things around to get used to it.  If you don’t want to pay the cost for magic, don’t do it.  If you want to pay the cost and get a huge return on your money, do it and deal with it.  I’ve been burned by the stars before, and although it sucked, it was one of the best experiences of my life.  It’s worth it.  How did I manage to survive being burnt by the stars?  Stay tuned.


Generally people are living longer and more productive lives; in short, there’s more time to enjoy retirement.  Understanding your investment options will help you prepare for the future and enjoy life along the way.

What is a RRIF?

A RRIF is an investment plan, established in accordance with Government of Canada requirements, into which you can transfer registered funds (usually your RSP) without tax liability for the purpose of establishing an income stream for life.

With a RRIF, starting the year after the plan is opened, an annual minimum payment must be taken each year and is considered taxable income. The year the plan is opened a payment does not have to be made, but you are free to withdraw any amount (however, in this case, withholding tax will apply to the full withdrawal amount).

The annual minimum payment that must be taken from a RRIF each year is determined by the Income Tax Actand is based on age. Your own age or your spouse’s age can be used to calculate the annual minimum payment. Using the younger of the ages will result in a lower annual minimum payment. This means less money will have to be withdrawn and taken into taxable income for the year and more remains in the RRIF earning tax-sheltered income.

How are payments taxed?

Not unlinke your RSPs, RRIFs grow tax-deferred. The only real difference is that you’ll have to withdraw at least the annual minimum payment required under the Income Tax Act, which is taxable as income.

All payments from a RRIF must be declared as income for the year they are received. Tax must be withheld on amounts withdrawn in excess of the annual minimum amount that is required to be paid under the Income Tax Act (Canada). If you receive RRIF payments in scheduled installments, we will compute withholding tax on each individual RRIF installment payment based on the total sum of the scheduled installment payments for a calendar year and not on each individual payment. We will use the following rates to compute the withholding tax:

in excess

(except Quebec)
Up to $5,000

$5,001 – $15,000

More than $15,000

You can request to have a specific amount of tax withheld (subject to the legislated minimum). By having more tax withheld from your payments, you may avoid any last minute panic when you file your personal income tax return and find you have an amount owing.

What is a RRSP?

   A Registered Retirement Savings Plan or RRSP is an account that provides tax benefits for saving for retirement in Canada. RRSP refers to a provision in the Income Tax Act that allows a person to shelter financial property from income taxes.

RRSPs may reduce taxes in up to three ways:

  1. Contributions to RRSPs, up to limits described below, may be deducted from income before calculating income tax due.
  2. Income earned within the account (interest, corporate dividends, trust distributions, capital gains) is not taxed until money is withdrawn from the plan, allowing the plan to grow faster than the same investments would grow if they were held outside the plan and thus subject to tax.
  3. Money may be withdrawn from an RRSP in tax years when one is in a lower income-tax bracket because of lower income (due to retirement, unemployment, etc.) than tax years when one makes contributions.

Deposit Insurance: All credit union deposits are insured by DICO up to $100,000 per account, plus each registered contract is insured up to $100,000.

Types of RRSPsRRSP accounts can be setup with either one or two associated individuals:

Individual RRSP

An Individual RRSP is associated with only a single individual, termed an account holder. With Individual RRSPs, the account holder is also called a contributor, as only they contribute money to their RRSP.

Spousal RRSP

Group RRSP

In a group RRSP, an employer arranges for employees to make contributions, as they wish, through a schedule of regular payroll deductions. The employee can decide the size of contribution per year and the employer will deduct an amount accordingly and submit it to the investment manager selected to administer the group account. The contribution is then deposited into the employee’s individual account and invested as specified. The primary difference with a group plan is that the contributor realizes the tax savings immediately, instead of having to wait until the end of the tax year.

What are Term Deposits?

Term deposits (GIC’s) are guaranteed investments suited to a wide variety of people. They offer a safe and secure way to guarantee your deposit and obtain steady growth. For those investors wishing to save for a short period of time or those saving for longer terms, this may be the perfect investment option.

Heritage Savings doesn’t just offer great term deposit rates and products – we offer individual service. If you’re considering investing in a term deposit, take the time to call your branch and speak to one of our knowledgeable staff. Tell us about your goals, and we can help customize the rate or feature of a term deposit or savings plan to meet your needs.

Terms: Available from 30 days to 5 years, with guaranteed interest or RRSP eligible Deposit


Integrity Health Services CASE STUDY

The Client

Integrity Health Services is one of Florida's premier home healthcare service companies. Their mission is to provide unparalleled service to patients and medical facilities throughout the community by offering the highest quality personnel at affordable prices. Kiely-Rivero Inc. migrated their email and file shares to Office 365.

The Problem

Integrity has grown from one small office to a corporate office and 5 branch offices with over 100 employees. During that period of growth, they were focused on patient care and not on technology until the inefficiencies became too great. Sharing files was achieved through email attachments, resulting in version confusion. Different offices used different applications and forms. Accessing a branch office's file server required remotely taking over a user's computer for the duration, disrupting their work day.

The Solution

Integrity engaged Kiely-Rivero Inc. to identify and implement a technology solution that would unify the company data. KRI recommended Office 365, which would provide them with Office applications for all employees, and HIPAA-compliant email and data storage. KRI provided project management and migration services, beginning with communications to all Integrity employees to set expectations, developing a migration timeline, scheduling all project activities, and providing training and documentation for tasks that employees needed to perform.

The first stage of the project was migrating 110 email accounts. KRI conducted this remotely using the Office 365 Import Service. Once the accounts were migrated, Integrity was able to make use of Groups and Shared Mailboxes to improve and simplify communication.

The next stage was migrating 800 GB of content from 6 file servers in different locations to SharePoint. KRI performed this using the Microsoft SharePoint Migration Tool. Most of the content was migrated to the Intranet, which consists of a site for each office and one site for shared access. Confidential content was migrated to restricted sites as needed by specific employees.

After migrating the data, KRI trained all of the Integrity employees in the use of SharePoint. They also provided power user and admin training for select employees.

Integrity employees quickly and independently adopted Microsoft Teams for internal communications, replacing Skype. KRI made use of the screen-sharing capability in Teams to train Integrity employees throughout the project.

The Outcome

All of Integrity's content is now in SharePoint where it can be easily found via full-text search. Because documents are stored in one location and accessible by employees in the various offices, there is no longer uncertainty about document versions. SharePoint permissions allow for greater security than was possible with shared drives.

Integrity operates 24/7, so the ability to access email and files from anywhere at any time is crucial. Previously, on-call employees had to take home copies of any documents they might possibly have needed to cover any eventuality to properly serve their customers.

Exchange email offers more functionality than Integrity's previous POP3 email, including calendaring and the ability to have email messages available on multiple devices.

During a recent project, Integrity was able to give secure SharePoint access to an outside contractor, which enabled seamless collaboration and sped up the progress of the project.


Granite is an igneous rock with at least 20% quartz and up to 65% alkali feldspar by volume.  Granite has been intruded into the crust of the Earth during all geologic periods, although much of it is of Precambrian age. Granitic rock is widely distributed throughout the continental crust and is the most abundant basement rock that underlies the relatively thin sedimentary veneer of the continents.


Dr. Marques Sophie
Office 519
Linear algebra
Fall Semester 2015
[email protected]
Justify all your answers completely (Or with a proof or with a counter example) unless
mentioned differently. No step should be a mystery or bring a question. The grader cannot
be expected to work his way through a sprawling mess of identities presented without a
coherent narrative through line. If he can’t make sense of it in finite time you could lose
serious points. Coherent, readable exposition of your work is half the job in mathematics.
You will loose serious points if your exposition is messy, incomplete, uses mathematical
symbols not adapted...
Problem 1 : (110 pt)
3 ´2 4
A “ ˝ ´2 6 2 ‚
2 3
1. Why A is orthogonally diagonalizable ?
2. Give the definition of characteristic polynomial of A AND compute it.
3. Prove that ´2 is a root of this characteristic polynomial. THEN, factorize pλ`2q from the characteristic polynomial ppλq, that is, find integers
a, b and c such that
ppλq “ pλ ` 2qpaλ2 ` bλ ` cq
4. Deduce all the eigenvalues for A and their multiplicities.
5. Without any computations, deduce the dimension of each eigenspace.
6. Compute an orthonormal basis for each eigenspace.
7. Orthogonally diagonalize A. Compute the inverse of P in the formula,
P being the matrix which orthogonally diagonalize A.
8. Deduce the spectral decomposition of A.
9. Compute An , for n P N, (in term of n).
10. We define the quadratic form Qpxq “ xT Ax with x “ ˝ x2 ‚ P R3 . Find
a change of variables y “ Ux such that the new quadratic form induce
by this change of variables has no cross product.
11. Is Q indefinite ? positive definite ? negative definite ? Justify.
12. Let x0 P R3 . Consider the differential equation
Axk “ xk`1
Give the form of the general solution for this equation in term of the
eigenvectors and the eigenvalues of A.
Problem 2 : (70 pt)
1 1
A“˝ 0 1 ‚
´1 1
1. Let A “ UΣV T be the singular value decomposition of A. Describe and
give the properties that U, Σ and V.
2. Give the definition of the singular value of A AND find them. Deduce
the rank of A AND Σ.
3. Find the columns of V. Explain all your work.
4. Deduce a basis for ColpAq, AND deduce the first columns u1 and u2 of
5. Write the system of equations satisfied by any vector x P R3 orthogonal
to u1 and u2 AND find an orthonormal basis for the solution set of this
6. Deduce U.
7. Give the singular value decomposition of A.
Problem 3 : (20 pt)
Given subspaces H and K of a vector space V, the sum of H and K, written
as H ` K is the set of all vectors in V that can be written as the sum of two
vectors one in H and the other in K, that is
H ` K “ tw, w “ u ` v, f or some u in H and some v in Ku
1. Show that H ` K is a subspace of V.
2. Suppose that H and K are finite dimensional with basis respectively
th1 , ¨ ¨ ¨ , hs u and tk1 , ¨ ¨ ¨ , kt u. Prove that th1 , ¨ ¨ ¨ , hs , k1 , ¨ ¨ ¨ , kt u is a spanning
set for H ` K.
Problem 4 : (10 pt)
Let T : V Ñ V and S : V Ñ V be linear maps where V is a vector space. Prove
that the composite T ˝ S is also a linear map.
Problem 5 : (20 pt)
1. Prove that the set B “ t1 ´ t2 , t ´ t2 , 2 ´ t ` t2 u is a basis for P2 the vector
space of polynomials of degree at most 2 ;
2. Find the coordinate of pptq “ 1 ` 3t ´ 6t2 relative to B.
Problem 6 : (20 pt)
Let V be the space Cr0, 1s of the continuous function on r0, 1s. We define on
it the inner product
ă f, g ą“
f ptqgptqdt, @ f, g P Cpr0, 1sq
Let W be the subspace of V generated by 1, t, t2 .
1. Identify W with a vector space seen in class.
2. Construct a orthonormal basis for W for the inner product defined
above, using the Gram Schmidt process.


HAND TOWELS (SIZE 45X65 CM) 600 GSM - Peacock Colour

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100% combed cotton, luxurious towel.

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Code product5103680
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Retirement Blog

Dr. Leonard Perry,
Extension Professor University of Vermont

Winter Squash - Acorn Squash - Butternut Squash - Pumpkins - Gourds Versatile, variety, and nutritious are all adjectives that can be used for winter squash. Whether you grew your own, or buy them from local farmers and markets, consider putting some up for winter. With proper storage of squash, you’ll benefit from their fresh flavors for months—often until next spring– as well as the nutrition of these vegetables.

Although winter squash has the same calories roughly as potatoes, it has more than twice the potassium. Winter squash provides various vitamins such as A, B6 and C, fiber, and minerals that may reduce the risk of certain cancers. These squash are a good source of anti-inflammatory nutrients needed for a strong immune system, such as omega 3’s and beta-carotene.

Winter squash store well, such as in a cool room or basement, which stays around 50 to 55 degrees (F). Acorn squash can store 3 to 4 months, other winter squashes can last up to 6 months or more.

So just what are winter squash, and all the types you may find? They’re one of the two major group of squashes, the other being summer squashes like yellow and zucchini. They’re so named as they’re harvested later—early fall around the time of first frost—and last well into and through winter. They’re one of the few vegetables native to North America, and have been grown as one of the “three sisters” by native peoples along with corn and beans.

Squashes are in the cucurbit family, related to cucumbers, melons, and gourds. Among the three main winter squash species, there are at least a dozen main types you may find.

Acorn are one of the most common winter squashes, medium size with an acorn shape, ridges, and dull green rind. Acorn squashes that have turned orange will have tough and fibrous flesh inside. It has a mild flavor, good for soups, baking, and stuffing.

Buttercup is similar in size to the acorn, only more squat with smooth dark green rind with some pale streaking. Some varieties may have a small bump on top, as it is a type of “turban” squash (see below). Its distinctive circular ridge on the bottom sets it apart from the similar “kabocha” squash (see below). Cooked, its flesh is mild and somewhat dry.

Butternut is another of the more commonly seen and used winter squashes, having a distinctive elongated pear shape—long neck and bulbous base– with tan rind. The flesh has a sweet and nutty flavor, and is bright yellow-orange. Similar to the acorn, roast it, mash it, or make into soup. It’s easier to deal with cutting the neck from the base, and handling each separately. To remove the hard rind, use a vegetable peeler once it is roasted.

Carnival squash is a cross between Sweet Dumpling (see below) and acorn squashes, and is similar in size and shape. It is light in color, white and yellow, with ridges. Use it similar to acorn or butternut squash.

Delicata is often called a “sweet potato squash” as it has a similar consistency when cooked, and similarly is sweet but more “earthy”. It is small, oblong, and pale yellow with green stripes. The thin skin makes it easily bruised, but also makes it edible. Use as you would a sweet potato, or simply cut in half, scoop out the seeds, and roast with olive oil and salt.

Hubbard is one of the larger squashes, noted for its size, teardrop shape, blue-gray rind and bumpy surface. It is good roasted, and sometimes is used as a vegetarian turkey substitute at Thanksgiving. The flesh has a pumpkin flavor.

Kabocha is a Japanese type of winter squash (this being the generic name for squash in Japanese), similar to the buttercup in appearance and coming in green or red. The deep yellow flesh is flaky but sweet, good roasted or baked with plenty of butter or oil.

Pumpkins are well-known, and come in sizes from tiny decorative ones to the giant ones you see at fairs and competitions. Keep in mind the ones for carving generally lack flavor, while the Sugar Pie ones have the sweet, pumpkin flavor good in pies, soups, or roasted. The squat and colorful French heirlooms are both sweet and ornamental.

Red Kuri is another Japanese squash, similar to a small Hubbard only with a red-orange rind and so is sometimes called a red Hubbard. The yellow flesh has a flavor resembling chestnuts, and is good roasted or the squash split and stuffed.

Spaghetti squash is light yellow, large, and oblong. Once the flesh is cooked, run a fork through it to make long “strings” that resemble spaghetti. In fact it makes a healthy alternative to pasta, with a mild flavor. This, as well as the Acorn and Delicata are very closely related to the summer squashes, just different varieties of the same species.

Sweet Dumpling is one of the parents of Carnival squash, being compact, whitish-yellow with some green streaks, and pronounced ridges. Its taste resembles a sweet potato, and its flesh is edible. This could be used in place of sweet potato or pumpkin in recipes.

Turban is the larger group of which Buttercup is a member, noted for its pronounced “bump” on top resembling a turban or turk’s cap—another name for it. Often these are quite colorful and can be used simply for decoration. Its sweet and mild flesh is good roasted, or in soup, and its outer rind can be used as the soup tureen.

There are many more types and cultivars of winter squash, including heirlooms. Experiment with some in this winter’s cooking, and try growing some from seeds next year.

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What are Cross-Party Groups?

Cross-Party Groups (CPGs) provide an opportunity for Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) to engage with external stakeholders on a particular subject.

CPGs are not formal parliamentary business and should not be confused with the Parliament’s committee system. They do not have any power to introduce issues formally into the parliamentary or government systems.

CPGs do not have access to any financial or staffing resources, other than is necessary for CPGs to meet in the Parliament. Should CPGs require translation services, catering, travel costs for attendees/speakers or equipment (other than is publicly available in the meeting rooms), these costs cannot be met by the Parliament. Costs can be met by the external secretariat as long as any costs that exceed £500 are declared on the registration and annual return forms. CPGs can also charge all members of the Group a subscription to cover these costs.

Applications for recognition as a CPG must be submitted to the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee for approval and only those Groups approved by the Committee are permitted to use the title ‘Cross-Party Group in the Scottish Parliament’.

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